Movies - Battle Royale

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Battle Royale is a novel written by Japanese author Koushun Takami. It was first published in Japan in April 1999, and it is one of Japan's best-selling and most controversial novels. It later formed the basis for a popular movie (which spawned a sequel), and has been adapted as a manga series (released in 15 issues, which were later adapted into English by Keith Giffen and published by TOKYOPOP).

An English translation of the novel was published by Viz in 2004.

Plot overview

Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline or future (The book specifies the year as 1997, suggesting an alternate present) where Japan is a police state known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. Once a year, randomly selected classes of middle-school students are forced to take arms against one another until only one student in each class remains. The program was created, supposedly, as a form of military research, though the outcome of each battle is publicized on local television. Late in the book, character Shogo Kawada discovers that the program is not an experiment at all, but a means of terrorizing the population. After seeing such atrocities, the people will become paranoid and divided, preventing an organized rebellion.

Under the guise of a "study trip", the students are corralled onto a bus and gassed, only to awaken on an evacuated island with metal collars around their necks. After being briefed about their role in the program, the students are issued bags that carry bread, water, a map, a compass, a flashlight, a watch and a weapon or a tool and sent out one by one, with two minutes separating each departure. While most of the students receive guns and knives, some students acquire useless items like boomerangs and dartboards. In some cases, instead of a weapon the student receives a tool; Hiroki Sugimura finds a radar that tracks nearby students and Toshinori Oda receives a bulletproof vest.

To make sure that the students obey the rules and kill each other, the metal collars around their necks track their positions, and will explode if they enter a "Forbidden Zone" or attempt to remove the collars. The Forbidden Zones are randomly chosen areas of the map that increase in number from hour to hour, re-sculpting and shrinking the battlefield and forcing the students to move around. The collars also transmit sound back to the organizers of the game, allowing them to hear the students' conversations, root out escape plans, and log their activities.

The students are also given a time limit. If twenty-four hours pass without a single death, then all of the collars will be detonated simultaneously and there will be no winner. It is later mentioned by Shogo Kawada that only 0.5% of Programs end in this fashion.

In the end, only four students are remaining: Shuya Nanahara, Noriko Nakagawa, Shogo Kawada, and antagonist Kazuo Kiriyama. There is a car chase and shootout between the three main characters and Kazuo. They win, but two of their group must die before the game can end. Several plot twists ensue before the book ends with two of the three alive and on the run.

Heroes

Shuya Nanahara
(spelled "Shuuya" in the TOKYOPOP English adaptation) is the main hero. He has witnessed a good deal of troubling events throughout his life, though precisely what he has seen differs according to different versions of the story. He is willing to trust others, not wanting to take part in the Battle Royale program. He tries to rally fellow students in an attempt to escape, but fails. Consequently, he narrowly escapes death at the hands of his classmates on several occasions.
Noriko Nakagawa
is the story's main female character and Shuya's first companion. Her portrayal changes in different versions of the story. She is shot in the upper arm in the film, the lower leg in the book and manga, and also gets ill. She manages to keep Shuya sane, although she does not know it, she also is the only other surviver along with Shuya.
Shogo Kawada
, portrayed as a loner within the class ranks, is a transfer student in all versions of the story. In the book and manga, he was put in class B about two months before the program takes place. In the film, however, he is added to the story very early on, being introduced after the rest of the class wakes up from being gassed on the class trip. He was the winner of the game 3 years previous. His father was also a doctor, meaning that he can help both Shuya and Noriko. Most importantly, he says that he knows a way to escape from the island and the entire Battle Royale program. But can he be trusted?

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Battle Royale ]

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Movies - Battle Royale

Plot overview

Heroes

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